Mail crane



Feb. 17, 194s. l, PENbLETON 2,436,226

MAIL CRANE Filed June 2, 1945 2 Sheets-Sheet l In vel/tar aar/WWW M@Feb. 117, 1948. r PENDLETQN 2,436,226

MAIL CRANE .Filed June 2, 1945 2 sheets-sheet 2 f ,gl @MMM d/away 15.7M5195 Patented Feb. 17, 1948 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MAIL CRANEIrvin Pendleton, Campbellsburg, Ky.

Application June 2, 1945, Serial No. 597,311

3 Claims. (Cl. ZES-1.2)

This invention relates tc mail bags of the type designed for use inconnection with cranes holding said bag for delivery to a passing trainor vehicle and it has for its principal object to improve the safety ofoperation of the arrangement by means of which the bag is caught orpicked up,to rmake ythe arrangement iit for operation in connection withvehicles travelling at high speed such as fast trains, or airplanes andto provide a construction ci this type which will not materially changeor complicate the approved type of structure.

Two kinds of structures have been in practical use for the purpose abovespecified. The older type of *mail bag was fastened to a ring or to achain which was suspended or stretched on pins or hooks of a stationdevice. A crane arm or carrier on the train provided with a hook caughtthe ring or chain and carried it along together Withvthe mail bagattached thereto.

The operation of such a device is, however, only tolerably saie at slowspeed. It has the great advantage lthat once the ring or chain wascaught it was safely held but it had, among others, the disadvantagethat the mail bag and support were not protected against free swingingmovement.

As such a movement causes a very marked unsafety of operation, .maycause damage and is even dangerous, especially where heavy mail bags areused, a second method has been employed, raccording to which the mailbag is carriedbn both ends between horizontal arms of a station devicewhich are under resilient pressure. These arms carry pins or springhooks engaging hooks or rings on the mail bag and thus hold the latterfully stretched out'and in an upright position between them. Usually acord running from one end of the mail bag to the other provides a meansfor catching the mail bag, which as a rule is a double bag with aconstricted middle portion. Either vthe latter is caught by a forkedcrane arm Ion the train or the said arm catches the mail bag between itsconstricted middle portion and the cord stretched betweenl the twolarger endA portions'. 1

The, present invention is an improvement of .the'last named methodaccording to which the mail bag is held in an upright position at theendof stationary crane arms which are under spring pressure. It consistsin an additional spring'pressed device attached to the stationarycarrier which is able to hold under spring pressure a cord, strap, wireor other device attached to the mail bag and it, therefore, is capableof holding such cord, straps, bands, or wire in a distended condition sothat together with the mail bag itself and with any suspensionorextension cord xed to the mail bag it may form a loop covering awidearea. The spring pressure takes up any slackening of the cord, strap orwire and therefore prevents swinging of the same,

The device presents a much wider area to the crane arm lon the trainthan heretofore attainable. Thereby the number of failures to catch themail bag is reduced to a. minimum even ii trains are travelling withhigh velocity. It will also be noted that the device may operate fromboth sides alike.

The new device moreover extends the area of the loop by attaching thelatter not directly to the stationary crane arm b'ut by means ofextensions in the form of cords, straps, wires, bands or the likeattached to its ends. .These extensions are caught and held by thestationary arms and thus determine the width of the loop at the end.lThe loop may thus cover a triangle of any size, with all corners heldfirmly and resiliently on the stationary device.

The triangular loop is much more easily caught by a crane arm on avehicle than the small loops formed by cords attached to both ends ofthe mail bag and it may even be arranged in such a way that thetriangular loop is very large and may be caught by an airplane by meansof a cable loweredfromsaid plane. and provided with a catching hook.

Two modifications of the invention are illustrated and described but itis to be-understood that these modiiications` show the invention merelyby way` of example and that further emf bodiments of the invention maybe used without departing from the essence of the invention.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is an elevational view of the arrangement, showing the mail bagsuspended in an upright position near a railroad car provided with adevice for catching the mail bag.

Figure 2 is an elevational side view of the de#- vide a wide basis forthe triangular loop. This suspension method is used for airplanes,

The arrangement illustrated in Figure 1 comprises the usual type of mailbag i!! having a constricted middle zone which is provided with hooks,rings or eyes II at its ends. These eyes are held on bolts I2 which arepivotally mounted on crane arms I3, I4', hinged to an upright I5, bymeans oi hin-ges' Iii.4 They-upper arm I3is preferablyunder the tensionof. a Vrspring l'I which will move it upwardly, while the lower arm i4simply falls down by gravity if not held.

Both arms are held in a horizontal position by the mail bag I when theeyes II are inserted over the pivoted ends of the bolts I2.

The upright I5 carries a support 2B in which the loop catching piece 2lis guided. *This 'piston- `on said arms extending into the directionalong like piece passes through a guide hole 22and is y provided at oneend with a head 23, carrying an ,nprightbolt 124. Ori the other end itcarries adisk againstwhich a spring 26 is pressing which nds its supportonawa'sher 36pressing against the supportilZ. ,c "LTheloop/form'ing cordonv strapLZI .is attached to the upper and lowerfpartv of the Vmail baglin the modification shown in v.Figur-'e 2 either directly orby.meansofsnap,fasteners A5 which permit to attach it to ,back-.onclamps 46 attached to the mail bag. vThis cord or strap carries aring or.eyepiece .28 whichmay be slid over the uprightbolt 24 on head23. `The.spring 28 retracting the piston-likepiece 2l then holds the cord 21 insuch a tensioned position under spring pressure that anapproximatelytriangular loop is formed by the mailbagand the two sections of thecord` 21 which are held .by the eye piece 28.

Av railroad .car.29 y:providedwith. a crane arm will bring the forwardend 35` of its .arm into the triangular.areaenclos'edby the loop 21 andwill seize the mail .bag .witha great degree oi safety, as the areaof..the -loop ,is much greater than-that Vcovered by the lateralmovements of the crane arm, ,even under -the most vunfavorable conditonswhen the -caris jerking heavily. All the parts of-the mail bag orconnected with the mailbag `are moreover `rmly held against swinging orsimilarmovements.

The mailbag mayl be easily detached from the crane arm, even lif-thelatteris-at a distance from the car window by openingthe strapfasteners.

To enlarge the area of the-.loop .the mail-bag may be -attachedltoextension straps or bands 32 with its ends,which are provided-.with thesuspension eyes or rings. The cord v`2'lvis then attached to theextensionstraps, strips or bands and the area ofthe loop, as is clearlyseen from Figures 5 and 6, may be-.extendedconsiderably.

For catching mail -bags from an airplane by means of acable.\33,asfindicated in Figure 4 it iscpreferable to suspend the mailbag horizontally on a mast 35v cron-a plurality of-masts, thelatter-carrying the structure 31, yfor. suspending the mail bag in ahorizontal position. The arms 38 need not be hinged 'o'rfpivoted' inithis case, as the airplane can catch the bag merely by means of ahook'39andv will lift it vabove 'therstructure Y' Thesections'39 of4thecord forming the loop which are attached toA the extension sections32, 82 are'iixed ona' hook-or eye 4I which is held which vthe mailbag ismoved during the pick-up operation for slidably holding the mail bag,meansattached to the ends of the mail bag for engaging-'said studsadapted to slide along said studs, la cord attached-to the said endportions of the mail bag, to form a loop with the body of themail bag,means attached to saidcord for detachably holding it, a springpressedl'slid-f able member mounted on the xed membjeno the craneprovided with a stud, for engagingthe cord holding means and' fordrawing the' cord and the mail bag inwardly towards wthe crane, thussimultaneously extendingthe loop to ymaximum lengthand holding the mailbag ,on' the studs of theV movable crane arms.

2. A mail bag suspension arrangement for mail bags to be picked up byvehicles in motion, comprising a crane with .a fixed member and withmovablemail bag suspension arms adapted to` b e moved away from eachother, projecting lstuds on said arms for slidablyholdin'g the mail bag,extension cords attached to the centervoi the end portions ofthe mailbag for extinisionv along the longitudinalgaxisof the mail bag, meansattached to the ends of the extension cordsof the mail bag for engagingsaidstuds, said means being adapted to slidealong the same, a cordattached to said extension cords forforininga loop with the body ofithemail bag, means jattached to said Ycord for detachablyholding it. aspring pressed slidable member mounted on ,the fixed member ofthe craneprovided withastud, for engaging the cord holding means t'and fordrawing the cord and the mailbag inwardly to- Wards thecrane,.tl'n.,1s,simultaneouslyy extending the lcopto maximum length andholding'the mail bag on the studs o n the movable crane arms.

3. A mail bag arrangement as speciedin'claim 2, with a mail bag providedwith extension cords extended horizontally and with a spring pressedmember arranged vertically for'forminga'lcop to be caughtby airplanes. y

IRVINPENDLETQN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of recordinfthe ilecf thispatent:V

'i UNITED ,':STATES 'PATENTS Number

